The Quick Clean Hour

23Jul07

Every day there will be a Daily Project & maybe I’ll throw in a New Habit … things so small that it won’t seem much like work.  If it does, quit immediately and do something else. I mean it!  Getting simplified is something that doesn’t happen overnight.  HGTV is great with their organizing and cleaning the house shows that get things done in 24 hours or less, but it’s just not an everyday reality, and it won’t help you create your own simple life that you can maintain forever.

And most importantly, take what you can use from here and trash the rest!  This is simply a guideline to get you started and motivated in the right direction towards simplification.  There’s never a “have to do”, just ideas on what “you can do”.  And … if you have ideas & suggestions that you use related to the postings, feel free to comment anytime.

Mondays are the beginning of most people’s week.  Whatever your first day of the week is, you would want to start on that day.  Also, if you are not already used to getting up early, perhaps now is the time to start that new habit.  So, the first habit to learn will be going to bed earlier and waking up at least an hour earlier EVERY DAY … even on the weekends.  Seem impossible?  Nah, not really.  After about a month, your body will come to expect this type of behavior, and you’ll feel tired if you do anything different.

The first habit you can create for yourself is:

1. Go to bed 1 hour earlier / Wake up 1 hour earlier.  Start tonight if you will.

Your first Daily Project, starting today will be your Quick Clean Hour:

1. You are no longer “allowed” to spend 2-3 hours deep cleaning your home once a week.  No one but you cares if your house is THAT clean.  They just don’t.  And then what happens by this time next week?  You have to do it again.  So, instead busting your butt working Monday - Friday and then spending half your Saturday cleaning, you will clean Monday morning (or your 1st day of the week) when you get up (or after you eat something) … OR, you can do it right when you get home from work that day.  You will have that whole hour now in the morning to get stuff done.  I recommend you do it first thing in the morning.
2. Here are ideas for what you can do for the Quick Clean Hour:

• Get a timer.  Set it for 10 minutes for each task. (Sample tasks are listed below…tweak them to accommodate your individual situation.)  DO NOT spend more than 10 minutes on each task.  If the timer goes off, just quit what you are doing.  If you still have the vacuum out, wait until the end to put it away … finish all your other tasks first.  Here are the tasks that you will spend 10 minutes (or less) on, and no more than 1 hour total for everything (also, if you finish something before 10 minutes is up, you can use the rest of your minutes on another task that perhaps takes a bit more time, but don’t spend more than 1 hour overall!)
• Empty all garbage cans throughout the house into a larger one (usually the kitchen), take out all recycling, take kitchen bags out to garbage cans in garage if full. 
• Dust with a feather duster (or one wet rag with water only & one dry rag)
• Quick vacuum all floors & carpet (even wood floors, just use the “bare floors” setting)
• Throw away all old, outdated magazines, junk mail, papers laying out
• Quick mop floors (only if there’s time and if you have pets that make little footprints in high traffic areas)
• Wipe all mirror & windows that need it (Windex & paper towels)
• Change sheets on beds / Do not wash old sheets yet, laundry will be another day

That’s it for now!  Your “big” cleaning day of the week can now be packed into 1 hour or less.  It can be fun too, racing the clock and seeing if you can finish faster and faster each week.  Let me know how it goes.

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